A recent Zillow report reveals that home prices in today’s housing market are holding steady, despite the recent economic upheaval caused by COVID-19.
Zillow reported [1] that the median sale price for homes across the U.S. was $263,408 in May—a 4.6% increase over last year but a 5.5% annual decline from March’s 5.5% growth.
This drop marks the second month in a row that the yearly growth rate lagged from the previous month.
Experts attribute this dip in growth to the shift in the types of home properties that are currently listed on the market for purchase. Specifically, the homes listed in the upper echelon cost bracket had prices, which dropped the most (and swiftest), leaving the more attainable homes less impacted. This, in turn, directly affected the median list price, causing it to slow in growth by almost 3% and ultimately, become lower.
However, Zillow suggests that its data forecasts a change to come, with new listings for high-end homes on the rise, thus raising the median price once more. Specifically, Zillow’s data reveals that list prices rose 5.8% within the past two months alone. Also, with demand outweighing supply, homes are selling like hotcakes—some in a mere 20-day window, according to Zillow.
Bidding wars among buyers remains fierce, leaving sellers free to remain unbending when it comes to not compromising on their asking prices. So, it appears that it is indeed a sellers-market currently.
CoreLogic [2] announced its Home Price Index (HPI) and Forecast for May 2020 that home prices rose 4.8% annually in May.
When compared with just last month (April 2019), home prices experienced an uptick of 0.7% during May. Experts point to a continued and steady increase in demand, paired directly with a decrease in supply, for the positive home price growth this season.